Government Approves Taiwan's First Biomedical Park

Taiwan is about to get is first biomedical science park. The development plan for the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park (HBSP) by the medical center of National Taiwan University has been approved by the Council for Economic Planning and Development, and an NT$3.95 billion (US$113 million at NT$35:US$1) budget for first-phase development has been appropriated by the National Science Council.

This money will only be enough to buy the 38.3 hectares of land, located in the special development area of the Chupei High Speed Railway Station, needed for the proposed park. The cost of developing the park is projected at NT$13.3 billion (US$380 million).

The park, under a plan mapped out by National Taiwan University Hospital, will include a general hospital, cancer and proton therapy center, joint medical R&D center, clinical center, incubation center, animal laboratory, and cell laboratory. The hospital will have 800 beds and alone will cost about NT$4 billion (US$115 million).

If everything goes according to plan, HBSP will be completed by August 2006 and play a role as a world-class biotechnology facility and a provider of education and research for the people not only of Taiwan but of Southeast Asia as well. It will also make the island an exporter of medical sciences and services.

The HBSP's chief planner is Dr. Su-Ming Hsu, a respected medical scientist who has served as professor at a number of medical schools and has held posts in the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health in the United States.

The park is expected to be especially strong in clinical research. It will help integrate Taiwan's biomedical and biotechnology resources by facilitating the sharing of research efforts and results among the National Institute of Health, National Taiwan University, Industrial Technology Research Institute, laboratories belonging to the Council of Agriculture, National Tsing Hua Unversity, National Chiao Tung University, and other research institutions.


Following the Leaders


The HBSP will function something like top foreign medical centers, such as those at Johns Hopkins and Stanford in the United States, which provide medical services to patients from foreign countries as well as the U.S.

Together, the Cancer and Proton Therapy Center and the hospital will occupy an area of 8 hectares and employ a medical staff of 2,000. The Cancer and Proton Therapy Center will focus on the study and treatment of the cancerous diseases that most commonly afflict Asian peoples, as well as other serious diseases, and will use the most advanced proton-therapy equipment.

The incubation center, joint-research centers, information-network center, and biotechnology center will cover 2.2 hectares and cost NT$1.91 billion (US$55 million). In total, these centers will have 120 research units and a staff of 600.

The third part of HBSP will focus on industrial R&D; it will cover an area of 16 hectares and take NT$3.63 billion (US$100 million) to develop. It will accommodate 200 standard offices/plants as well as 200 more to be built by the occupying companies themselves according to their own design.

To help with the transfer of R&D achievements to the industrial sector, a biotechnology park will be set up nearby.

The HBSP is projected to have 10,000 workers and to generate revenues of NT$20 billion (US$570 million) in 2025. Completion of the High Speed Railway will put the facility within just 19 minutes of Taipei, giving residents of the capital quick access to the best available medical services.